Easter 5 C                R Lundquist                           5/6/07

John 13:31-35   http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=45424385

“A new commandment”  

See “Star Trek:  Prime Directive”

“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” This is Jesus’ Prime Directive!

A new commandment – love.  Not that the others lacked love – that’s not the issue.  In our society at this time in history we balk at “commandment” – an order, fiat, or rule – and react against that perceived lack of personal freedom.  “My space, my thing, my rights, my privileges…”  It’s revealing:  we’re “up” on individual, but we’re lost a sense of community.  The integrated society in Jesus’ time and before, when there was no division or compartmentalization of life into “work, place, religion…”  We’ve lost something in the almost exclusive emphasis on the individual.  The 10 commandments are guidelines on “how to live together,” and perhaps we can see them as a guide to returning to an expanded sense of community.

Remember, God loves… you.  God gives you a promise (I love you) and the law (commandments).

Think of the promise as a tent over the community, & the law as the poles – they hold up the tent.

Do we have to follow the law to earn love?  No.  [See Moses, the murderer; cross-reference w/ the 6^th commandment…]

Try this on for size:  God loves us, made us, knows what works & what doesn’t.

“Here are 10 rules for a way of life that works.  

Barbara Brown Taylor+ in Gospel Medicine.

One:  You shall have no other gods before me.  In the 1^st place because I am very jealous of your affections and in the 2^nd place because other gods cannot do anything for you.  I am the one who brought you out of Egypt.  I am the Lord your God, and you shall not give anyone else my place in your hearts.

Two:  No more golden calves.  You look silly bowing down to little statues that you yourselves have made, and besides, you don’t need them.  You have me.

Three:  Don’t throw my name around.  A name is a very personal thing, and the fact that you know mine at all is a sign of our closeness.  Do not abuse the privilege.

Four:  Keep the Sabbath, not for my sake but for yours.  One day a week, stop working and remember that you are more than what you do.

Five:  Honor your father and mother.  Whatever kind of job they did on you, they are still your roots.  Lose them and you lose your place in the story.

Six:  Don’t murder.  However dubious it may seem to you, all life is precious to me, including yours.  Until you can make it, don’t take it.

Seven:  Don’t mess around with marriage vows, your own or anyone else’s.  Sticking with one person is the best chance you have got of growing up.

Eight:  Don’t take what doesn’t belong to you.  Life may not be fair, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be.

Nine:  Don’t give your word on things you know aren’t true.  Your word is as much a part of your as your arm or your leg.  Twist it and you will limp.  Why would you do that to yourself?

Ten:  Don’t fondle other people’s things in your mind as if they were your own.  You’ll not only resent them for having things; you’ll soon resent yourself for not having them too.  Learn to want what you have and pretty soon you will have what you want.”

These are the 10 rules, the commandments that describe a life worth living.  All are limits – loving drawn boundaries.  Hear them not so much as conditions of the promise as part of the promise itself.  “Here is what works,” says God.  “Sink these 10 posts into the center of your camp.”

            [See p 350 of the BCP for the Decalogue]  

And before his earthly ministry ends, Jesus adds #11.

It’s all about love, but Jesus spells it out:  “Love as I love.” 

This is the Divine Example.          It is what we are baptized into.

            How much does Jesus love you?

Only you know the answer.  Maybe it can’t even be put into words.  And that’s the blessing!  That’s the Good News!  That’s the fulfillment of the commandments! 

            “Even as I have loved you… love one another.”

How does this commandment look in real life?  An Angolan woman visiting the US was asked, “How do you evangelize in your land?”  Her simple response: “We send 1 or 2 Christian families to live in a village. When people see what Christians are like, they want to be Christians themselves.” 

“By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

            A new commandment…

Amen.